Heri

excerpts from DHH’s report on RailsConf 2007 :
* they went from 500 to 1600 attendees
* ThoughtWorks announcing that 40% of all new business in the US is Ruby on Rails projects
* banks and insurance companies are beginning to use Ruby on Rails too

Yesterday was hot, especially when you ride a bike, with a big backpack, and you have to meet people in various parts of the town. And especially with a bike that barely works. But I liked it. It was fun and I’ll do it again.

Bonus: a video I took of some cool folks I met yesterday

(I am currently testing video players for a project, to get their look and feel and see whats best)

I have started blogging 3 months ago. I wanted to try it out; and I think it’s time to make a summary. At the beginning, i was supposed to talk about ruby on rails, web development, and montreal, but it turned out that writing authorative articles on those subjects take more time than I find in a day. So It became a mix between a diary and tumblelog.

Now, I have seen what other people are doing on the “blogosphere”, especially in Montreal. Evan Prodromou said it was much a matter of ego with blogs, back at barcamp. Michel Leblanc said you absolutely need to have a blogroll and link back to many people. Marc Snyder is evangelising blogs to companies as the holy grail for 21st corporate communication. Benjamin Yoskovitz had made an art of submitting to diggs and group writing projects. I know another fellow Malagasy blogger who seem to put a lot criterias and constraints on the blogs he is reading.

But I don’t see it that way. I used to worry about the number of comments or trackbacks. Not anymore. I don’t think a blog is an end in itself, as the people at Webcom seem to imply. Of course there is sometines a business objective behind it, but I would like to say that I am blogging because it is just fun. And I think it’s all that matters. I am writing about subjects I like or stuff I am working on. I think it’s great to have feedback and talk with other people. But I have no objective of ranking heri.madmedia.ca on the blogosphere and gathering links. I won’t worry about rules about what is a blog and what are the official manners, because I think a blog is just a chronologically-reverse publishing website.

So yeah. The word of the day is fun.

Have a fun blogging day!

The famine is already coming to the devastated areas in Madagascar by cyclones, which are the worst in areas. There is an estimated total of 190.000 victims. The World Food Program says the situation is desperate and that the clock is ticking to save lives

Oh my. I planned to go the North-West of Mada this summer. I guess I’ll stop the trip in U.K. and in Paris.

For the (rare) people who know what’s being done, we just received our first subsidy for www.visionsdepaix.com a sideproject I am involved in. It’s a bright day in Montreal today.

A moving interpretation of “God Bless Africa”, celebrating unity, reconciliation and freedom.

“Tomavana” : Tamin’ny fotoan’io fampisehoana io dia firenena ankila-baon’izao tontolo izao i Afrika Atsimo. Mandeha anefa ny tantara, ka navoaka tam-ponja i Nelson Mandela, lasa filoham-pirenena voalohany vokatry ny fifidianana malalaka. Nomeny andraikitra lehibe ny komisiona Fahamarinana sy Fampihavanana satria raha hiara-monina ny « mpiavy » sy ny « tompon-tany » dia tsy maintsy mifamela mba ahafahany hamoha miaraka pejy vaovao amin’ny tantara iombonana.

Aujourd’hui, les français en Amérique du Nord votent pour le président de la république.

Pour l’occasion, je mets donc une vidéo d’Abd Al Malik qui parle d’un défi pour la France qui est celui de la construction d’une société. Beaucoup de paroles pertinentes, qui l’auraient été ici aussi lors du débat sur les accomodement raisonnables.

Note: Abd Al Malik est un slammeur/rappeur/philosophe francais. Il a gagné le prix Laurence Trane pour son dernier livre et le prix Constantin pour son dernier album, Gibraltar, révéation de l’année 2006 en France

Écouter Gibraltar – 1er piste de l’album

I would usually put this into my tumblelog but it was just too damn funny to leave it there.

Some other countries not shown on the map because they were too small: Qatar, Andorre, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Djibouti

A cool tool to show the countries you have been to

via i.never.nu

from Jerome Hubert, a photographer on the move in Madagascar

via Greg